Method, apparatus, and program for pre-selling tickets to effect a booking of an event

ABSTRACT

An apparatus, method, and program for pre-selling tickets to determine whether to book an event or activity, and for facilitating the sale of those tickets. Consumers who pre-purchase a ticket are plainly notified if an event has not yet been booked. They are also shown the progress toward the likely booking of the event. A successful pre-sale of tickets triggers the booking of the event. An unsuccessful pre-sale results in the event not being booked. Consumers who help effect an event booking may be given privileges over those who purchase traditional tickets for the same event after it has already been booked.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of allowed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/878,818, filed on Sep. 9, 2010, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/379,542, filed on Apr. 20, 2006, nowU.S. Pat. No. 7,801,752, each of which is incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of ticket sales and eventbooking. In particular, the present invention relates to conditionalbooking of an event, activity, or travel engagement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the current market for tickets, promoters book events in advance ofticket sales based on market studies or assumptions. The generalassumption in booking is that enough tickets will be sold to support aprofitable event. However, for various reasons, a market may not respondas favorably as predicted once tickets go on-sale, leaving promoterswith unmet expectations or a financial loss.

Likewise, as a result of market studies and assumptions, promoters maybypass or overlook a given market because it is presumed or proven tohave little or no commercial promise of supporting a given event or typeof event. This presumed or proven lack of interest by consumers leavescertain markets perennially underserved.

Accordingly, it would be desirable for the present invention tofacilitate a guaranteed and highly controlled pre-sale of tickets priorto booking an event with a venue or exhibitor. It is another desire ofthe invention to assure promoters of a satisfactory return on theirinvestment, thus reducing or eliminating altogether the financial riskof an unsold or undersold booking. It is a further desire of theinvention to allow consumers to prove to promoters that there issufficient interest to warrant a given booking, contrary to previousmarket assumptions. It is also a desire of the invention to allowconsumers with a personal or civic interest to help a promoter market anevent in order to get that event booked.

Further desires of the invention will become apparent from the followingdescription.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the present invention solve the problems and addressthe drawbacks of the approaches in the above description. An embodimentof the present invention is a method of determining a booking of anevent by pre-selling admission tickets to the event using a centralticket controller linked to at least one computer processor. Thepreferred method comprising the steps of: inputting a critical masscriteria, inputting a critical date criteria, accessing the computerprocessor to submit a customer request to purchase a ticket for futurefulfillment, submitting the request to the central ticket controller,processing the request, and transmitting information relative to thepre-purchased ticket to the computer processor.

The Critical Mass may be defined as a number of tickets or cash valuerequired to be pre-purchased to effect a booking of an event. TheCritical Date may be defined as a date and time wherein the CriticalMass must be achieved to secure the booking of the event. A successfulpre-sale of tickets may trigger the booking of the event. Anunsuccessful pre-sale may result in the event not being booked.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a system for determininga booking of an event by pre-selling tickets to the event comprising: acentral ticket controller linked to at least one or more externaldevices by a suitable system interface. The central ticket controllermay be a webserver computer connected to a database with appropriatesoftware to communicate with an external device and implement themethods above.

A further embodiment of the present invention may include CriticalBlinds. A Critical Blind is information that is selectively withheldfrom customers.

These and other embodiments of the present invention are further madeapparent, in the remainder of the present document, to those of ordinaryskill in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In order to more fully describe embodiments of the present invention,reference is made to the accompanying drawings. These drawings are notto be considered limitations in the scope of the invention, but aremerely illustrative.

FIG. 1 shows an overall system block diagram of a preferred embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a method overview of a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 shows a display of a graphical gauge illustrating a Critical Masscriteria according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a display of a graphical gauge illustrating the progress ofa rising Critical Mass criteria in relation to the Critical Datecriteria according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a display that a Critical Mass criteria was achieved by theCritical Date criteria and tickets will be fulfilled to the consumeraccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a display that an event has been booked and is presentlysold out according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart depicting the processing of a request topre-purchase an admission ticket according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 shows a display of a Binding Agreement of Sale prior to an eventbeing booked according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a display wherein the Critical Mass criteria was not metbefore the Critical Date criteria according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

The description above and below and the drawings of the present documentfocus on one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention andalso describe some exemplary optional features and/or alternativeembodiments. The description and drawings are for the purpose ofillustration and not limitation. Those of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize variations, modifications, and alternatives. Such variations,modifications, and alternatives are also within the scope of the presentinvention. Section titles are terse and are for convenience only.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown an overall system block diagramof a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment,a central ticket controller 10 may be linked to at least one or morecomputer processors 11 by a suitable system interface. Central ticketcontroller 10 may be adapted to communicate to external devices via anetwork connection, hard wire connection, wireless connection or anyother connection, and provides customers access to central ticketcontroller 10 from locations worldwide, regardless of where the promoteror ticket agent has its primary place of business.

In one embodiment of the invention, the external device capable ofcommunicating with central ticket controller may be an apparatus with acomputer processor such as, but not limited to, a ticketing terminal,home computer, PDA, mobile phone, or telephone. The terminal may beadapted to receive a request to purchase a ticket for future fulfillmentand then be capable of processing the request.

The system depicted in FIG. 1 may be embodied in hardware specificallyprovided to implement the present invention. Alternatively, the systemmay be implemented using the infrastructure that presently linksexisting ticketing agents with consumers/vendors. In particular, manyticketing agents are already linked to computerized reservation systemssponsored by various vendors. The hardware and communication links ofthese systems may be used as an infrastructure for the presentinvention. Changes to the existing system interfaces for pre-sellingtickets to incorporate the subject invention may be accomplished invarious ways, such as reprogramming an existing file server or by addingadditional file servers. Alternatively, the subject invention may beimplemented using existing hardware incorporating appropriate softwareupdates. For example, the external device may be a personal computerexecuting a browser application to communicate with central ticketcontroller. Central ticket controller may be a webserver computerconnected to a database with appropriate software to communicate withthe external device and implement the methods below.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a method of determining abooking of an event by pre-selling tickets for admission to the eventusing a central ticket controller linked to at least one computerprocessor. The preferred method, as shown in FIG. 2 comprises the stepsof: inputting a critical mass criteria 200, inputting a critical datecriteria 210, accessing the computer processor to submit a customerrequest to purchase a ticket for future fulfillment 220, submitting therequest to the central ticket controller 230, processing the request240, and transmitting information relative to the pre-purchased ticketto the computer processor 250. The method can be applied not only toevents, but to activities of any kind, provided that entry into them isregulated by the purchase of a ticket or secured reservation, includingbut not limited to, commercial travel engagements. Commercial travelengagements may include air, sea, or ground transportation.

Critical Mass criteria is defined as a number of tickets or a total cashvalue of tickets, or both. In either case, the Critical Mass may bedisplayed to consumers in a graphical gauge (such as a thermometer ordial), in relation to the total capacity or cash value of booking theentire venue, as shown in FIG. 3. In a preferred embodiment, a promotermay choose to set the Critical Mass at less than the capacity of thevenue. Alternatively, the promoter may choose to set the Critical Massequal to the capacity of the venue in which case the promoter isrequiring a sold out event in order to effect a booking. In one example,the Critical Mass criteria may be set at 100 tickets, or at $1000. Inanother example, the Critical Mass may also be set at the earlier of 100tickets or $1000. In yet another example, the Critical Mass criteria mayalso be set at both 100 tickets and $1000.

The Critical Date is defined as a date and time of day. An example of aCritical Date may be Feb. 28, 2006—9:00 am. Tickets may be put on saleany time prior to the Critical Date, but ideally with a reasonableamount of time for the Critical Mass to build so that a booking may beeffected, which should be the honest intent of the promoter. TheCritical Mass must be achieved prior to the Critical Date in order tobook the event, as shown in FIG. 5. Consumers who attempt to purchasetickets prior to the Critical Mass being achieved may be plainlynotified that the event has not yet been booked, as shown in FIG. 4.They may also be shown the progress toward the Critical Mass value inrelation to the Critical Date, and their position in it.

A purchase transaction may be initiated from any one of computerprocessors 11 linked to central ticket controller 10. The informationrequired to implement the transaction may be passed between any one ofcomputer processors 11 and central ticket controller 10 until thetransaction is complete. Central ticket controller 10 keeps track of allsales transactions in the system.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart depicting the processing of the customer request.The process starts when a customer accesses an on-line merchantprocessor model and submits customer information 700. Central ticketcontroller 10 receives the request to pre-purchase the ticket based onthe information received from the customer together with the informationfrom the on-line merchant model 710. The on-line merchant model may bean on-line shopping cart, or the like. After a purchase price isdetermined by central ticker controller 10, it may be transmitted to thecustomer 720. After the price is transmitted to the customer 720, thecustomer may decide whether to purchase the ticket. If the customerdecides to purchase the ticket, the customer may then secure a method ofpayment that is capable of being automatically processed by the computerprocessor, such as, but not limited to, a credit card 730. The customermay next receive a Binding Agreement of Sale, (“Agreement”) 740. TheAgreement may state, if a Critical Mass (x tickets or y cash value) isachieved before the Critical Date (MM/DD/YY-HH:MM:SS), then 1) the eventwill be booked; 2) the payment will be processed; and 3) the ticket(s)will be fulfilled to the consumer, FIG. 8. The Agreement conversely maystate or imply, if the Critical Mass is not met by the Critical Datethen 1) the event will NOT be booked; 2) the payment will NOT beprocessed; and 3) the ticket(s) will NOT be delivered to the consumer,as shown in FIG. 9.

After the customer request is processed, information relative topre-purchased ticket is transmitted to the computer processor that isprocessing the request. The transmitted information may include: aconfirmation to the customer that the ticket has been pre-purchased forfuture fulfillment and or delivery to the customer (via e-mail, regularmail, FedEx, will call, etc.); a notification that the event has not yetbeen booked; and a real-time registration of the sale in the form of agraphical depiction of rising Critical Mass. Real-time feedback mayenhance the user experience and add an element of excitement, sincecustomers get to see the immediate impact of their purchases and thepurchases of others, especially in the fury of a popular or widelypublicized event.

After a Critical Mass is achieved and an event booked, traditional salesmay continue up to the sold out event capacity, as shown in FIG. 6. Atraditional sale is a sale made after an event has been booked. In thecase of these non-critical ticket sales, payment may be processed at thetime of sale, according to the prevailing practice.

The time between the On-Sale Time (the date and time when tickets arefirst available for purchase) and the Critical Date is the CriticalWindow, during which the Critical Mass class of tickets may bepurchased. Tickets purchased after a Critical Mass has been achieved maybe considered in a separate priority class for promotional purposes.Thus, a further embodiment of the present invention may include CriticalWindow promotions provided only to customers who help effect an eventbooking. Such Critical Window promotions may not necessarily be offeredto those who purchase traditional tickets for an already-booked event.Critical Window promotions may include, but are not limited to: reducedticket prices; reduced processing fees; preferred venue entry; preferredvenue parking; preferred venue seating; discounts on concessions; andaffinity program points.

A promoter may at any time during the Critical Window either decreasethe Critical Mass criteria or increase the Critical Date criteria tohelp effect the booking of an event. This may favor consumers who havealready purchased tickets and would not adversely affect BindingAgreement(s) of Sale already Issued. In this case, the promotercontrolling the sale of tickets assumes the additional risk.

Customers may likely have a personal stake in helping a promoter marketan event in order to help effect a booking of that event during theCritical Window, especially customers who have already purchased ticketsthemselves. The viral aspect of marketing Critical Mass events enhancesand feeds the sense of community surrounding them. Therefore, a furtherembodiment of the present invention may include easy dissemination toolsfor proactive consumers to notify their friends of the event, forexample, via e-mail, SMS, and online social networks.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, promoters may offer“affiliate” payments or credits to customers whose personal marketingresults in the sale of tickets, especially during the Critical Window,but also after a Critical Mass is attained.

In one embodiment, customers may be given maximum information on thecritical parameters and real-time status of ticketing for an event.However, in alternate embodiments, many conceivable variations may beimplemented whereby information may be selectively withheld fromcustomers. Collectively, these variations are Critical Blinds. Eachblind may affect the process of pre-sales, but not the fundamentalmethod of Critical Mass Ticketing System. Blinds may favor the promoterover the customer, and may leave customers less motivated topre-purchase tickets.

A Critical Blind variation may include a Critical Mass Blind. TheCritical Mass Blind is a variation in which the exact Critical Mass goaland/or relative progress toward that goal may be withheld from thecustomer. The customer may still, however, ascertain whether theCritical Mass has been met. This feature may be advantageous to apromoter who does not want to divulge the number of pre-sales requiredto effect a booking, either because the promoter perceives the CriticalMass to be too high or too low relative to public expectations.Implementation of the Critical Mass Blind may also have the effect ofmasking the degree of the lack of interest, particularly in a case wherean event does not achieve its Critical Mass.

Another Critical Blind variation may include a Critical Date Blind. Inthis variation the Critical Date deadline may be either withheld fromthe customer or not set at all. The customer may still, however,ascertain whether the Critical Date has passed. This feature may beadvantageous to a promoter who wants to discourage procrastinationduring Critical Window sales. Implementation of the Critical Date Blindmay indicate to the customer that the event may go off-sale at any timeand without warning.

Yet another Critical Blind variation may include a Capacity Blind. Inthis variation the venue capacity may be withheld from the customer,such that the customer may not know how many total tickets are availablefor sale. This feature may be advantageous to a promoter who wants todiscourage procrastination during Critical Window or traditional sales.Implementation of the Capacity Blind may indicate to the customer thatthe event may sell out any time and without warning, once the CriticalMass has been attained, even in the case that Critical Mass is set atcapacity.

Still another Critical Blind variation may include a Venue Blind. Inthis variation the exact venue name and location may be withheld fromthe customer, and only a general locale may be given. For, example,“Venue to be announced later, within x distance of postal code y.”Implementation of the Venue Blind may be advantageous to a promoter whowants to gauge interest in an event before selecting an appropriatelysized or priced venue. In this variation, after the Critical Mass isachieved, the event is guaranteed, but may not be necessarily booked.Booking may occur instead when ticket sales leveloff and the promoterhas a sense of the appropriate venue. Once booked, payments may then beprocessed, tickets may be fulfilled to the customer, and any remainingticket sales may be capped at the booked venue capacity.

Still another Critical Blind variation may include an Event Date Blind.In this variation the exact date and time for an event may be withheldfrom the customer, and only a general but reasonable date range may begiven. For example, “Date and time to be announced later, within therange MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY.” This feature may be advantageous to apromoter using, in conjunction, Venue Blind ticketing or to a promoterthat is booking a touring event.

In any blind variation, payments may not be processed nor may tickets befulfilled and delivered until the event is booked and guaranteed tooccur at a given location, date, and time.

In the situation where resources are limited for a particular event,such as a talent act that can perform only for a limited number ofshows, or a film that has only a certain number of prints, a furthervariation may allow customer constituencies to bid for preference byproving a greater demand than other constituencies. In a furtherembodiment of the present invention, a promoter may place one or moreproposed bookings in competition with one another using the CriticalMass methodology. Each pre-sale may share the same on-sale date,Critical Mass criteria, and Critical Date criteria. The constituencythat achieves the highest number of tickets sold by the Critical Datewins the bid for the event. However, if no constituency achieves theCritical Mass by the Critical Date then no event may be booked.

In the case of more than two constituencies bidding for an event, thepromoter may specify that multiple shows with the highest pre-sales maybe booked, but not all shows. For example, the top three of five partiesmay become eligible to book the limited engagement event.

Although specific embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed above in detail, the description is merely for purposes ofillustration. Various modifications of, and equivalent stepscorresponding to, the disclosed aspects of the exemplary embodiments, inaddition to those described above, can be made by those skilled in theart without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention, the scope of which is to be accorded the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass such modification and equivalentstructures.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method of determiningwhether to book an event, the method comprising: under control of one ormore computing systems configured with executable instructions,receiving a critical mass criteria and a critical date criteria for anevent, the critical mass criteria indicating a minimum number of ticketsthat must be pre-sold by a critical date deadline of the critical datecriteria in order for a booking of the event to occur; transmitting, toone or more customers and prior to the critical date deadline, (a) ablinded version of the critical date criteria that withholds thecritical date deadline but enables the one or more customers toascertain whether the critical date deadline has passed and (b) anindication that the booking of the event will occur when the criticalmass criteria is achieved prior to the blinded version of the criticaldate criteria; receiving a request, from at least one of the one or morecustomers, to pre-purchase a ticket to the event; and triggering thebooking of the event when the critical mass criteria and the criticaldate criteria are achieved.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim1, further comprising: receiving payment information to be used topurchase the ticket; and storing the payment information for laterprocessing when the critical mass criteria and the critical datecriteria are achieved.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising: providing information about a future fulfillment ofthe ticket to the at least one of the one or more customers.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the information aboutthe future fulfillment of the ticket comprises a graphical gaugeindicating progress towards satisfying the critical mass criteria.
 5. Acomputerized system for booking an event, comprising: at least oneprocessor; a memory device including instructions that, when executed bythe at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: receivecritical mass criteria and critical date criteria for a booking of oneor more events, the critical date criteria including a critical datedeadline; transmit information about the one or more events to a userprior to the critical date deadline, the information including a blindedversion of the critical date criteria that withholds the critical datedeadline but enables the user to ascertain whether the critical datedeadline has passed, the information further including an indicationthat the booking of the event will occur when the critical mass criteriais satisfied prior to the blinded version of the critical date criteria;receive a request to pre-purchase a ticket of at least one of the one ormore events from the user; and trigger the booking of the at least oneof the one or more events when the request causes the critical masscriteria and the critical date criteria to be satisfied.
 6. Thecomputerized system of claim 5, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to: receive payment informationto the used to purchase the ticket; and store the payment informationfor later processing when the critical mass criteria and the criticaldate criteria are satisfied.
 7. The computerized system of claim 5,wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least oneprocessor to: create a competition for the booking of the one or moreevents among a plurality of constituencies.
 8. The computerized systemof claim 7, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the atleast one processor to: determine a winner of the competition for thebooking of the event based on a highest number of pre-sold tickets forthe event among one of the plurality of constituencies.
 9. Thecomputerized system of claim 7, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to: determine multiple winnersof the competition for the booking of the event among the plurality ofconstituencies.
 10. The computerized system of claim 7, wherein theinstructions when executed further cause the at least one processor to:determine no winner of the competition for the booking of the one ormore events when none of the plurality of constituencies satisfy thecritical mass criteria and the critical date criteria.
 11. Thecomputerized system of claim 5, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to: charge the user a reducedticket price to pre-purchase the ticket when the critical mass criteriaand the critical date criteria are not vet satisfied.
 12. Thecomputerized system of claim 5, wherein the instructions when executedfurther cause the at least one processor to: provide the user a discountto pre-purchase the ticket when the critical mass criteria and thecritical date criteria are not yet satisfied.
 13. The computerizedsystem of claim 5, wherein the instructions when executed further causethe at least one processor to: award the user with affinity programpoints to pre-purchase the ticket when the critical mass criteria andthe critical date criteria are not yet satisfied.
 14. The computerizedsystem of claim 5, wherein the instructions when executed further causethe at least one processor to: withhold a discount from the user topre-purchase the ticket when the critical mass criteria is not yetsatisfied but the critical date criteria is satisfied.
 15. One or morenon-transitory computer-readable media having collectively thereoncomputer-executable instructions that when executed on one or morecomputers, cause the one or more computers to collectively, at least:receive a critical mass criteria and a critical date criteria for abooking of an event, the critical date criteria including a criticaldate deadline; transmit information about the event to a user prior tothe critical date deadline, the information including a blinded versionof the critical date criteria that withholds the critical date deadlinebut enables the user to ascertain whether the critical date deadline haspassed and an indication that the booking of the event will occur whenthe critical mass criteria satisfied prior to the blinded version of thecritical date criteria; receive a request to pre-purchase a ticket ofthe event from the user; and trigger the booking of the event when therequest causes the critical mass criteria and the critical date criteriato be satisfied.
 16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia according to claim 15, wherein the computer-executableinstructions further cause the one or more computers to collectively, atleast: receive payment information to be used to purchase the ticket;and store the payment information for later processing when the criticalmass criteria and the critical date criteria are satisfied.
 17. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 15,wherein the critical date criteria are satisfied when the critical masscriteria are satisfied prior to the critical date deadline.
 18. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 17wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the one ormore computers to collectively, at least: provide a notification thatthe event has not yet been booked distinct from a notice ofcancellation, the notification that the event has not yet been bookedincluding the blinded version of the critical date criteria.
 19. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 15,wherein the information includes a blinded version of the critical masscriteria.
 20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediaaccording to claim 15, wherein the critical mass criteria are satisfiedwhen a threshold number of pre-sold tickets or a threshold total cashvalue of pre-sold tickets is exceeded.
 21. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 15, whereinthe critical mass criteria specify a threshold number of pre-soldtickets, a threshold total cash value of pre-sold tickets, and apriority with respect to the threshold number of pre-sold tickets andthe threshold total cash value of pre-sold tickets.
 22. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 15, whereinthe event comprises a ticket regulated activity.